The procedure currently extant in most hospitals, clinics, and the like with regard to the rooms in which surgery is normally performed provides for the designation of adjacent sterile and unsterile areas in which personnel in one section do not have direct contact with personnel or equipment disposed in the other section while the surgery is in progress. In carrying out in one way such a procedure, sterile packages containing various materials (e.g., replaceable surgical blades) are opened in the unsterile area and without direct contact of the blades by the personnel in such area they are tossed or otherwise transferred onto a supporting surface located in the sterile area. Heretofore, it has been the practice for the exposed blade to be transferred to the sterile area. Subsequent to the exposed blade being located in the sterile area, the attending nurse or assistant picked up the blade from the supporting surface and with the exercise of extreme care and dexterity attached the blade to the end of a scalpel handle. Because the blades are thin and have very sharp cutting edges, the gloved hand of the nurse or assistant was frequently nicked by the blade or in some instances the hand was cut requiring replacement of the nurse or the assistant.
As an alternative way of carrying out the procedure, the package for the blade was opened in the unsterile area and the opened package held by the person in the unsterile area so that only the attachment end portion of the blade was exposed whereby the person in the sterile area could physically withdraw the exposed blade from the package without contacting the other package components or the person holding the package. Such a procedure, however, required good coordination between the personnel in the two areas. Frequently the transfer was delayed because one of the persons in one area was unavailable at a particular time because of the performance of other essential duties. Furthermore, unless care was exercised in opening the package in the unsterile area, the blade would fall out of the package and become unsterile and, thus, have to be discarded.
Various packages for surgical blades have heretofore been provided; however, because of certain inherent design characteristics they are possessed of one or more of the following shortcomings: (a) the package is of complex, costly and/or bulky construction; (b) the package is difficult and awkward to open; (c) the package is ineffective in providing protection for the person handling same in the normal manner during attachment of the blade to a handle; and (d) the blade must be removed from the package prior to being attached to the handle.